A MOST HAPPY FEAST OF ST JOHN BOSCO TO YOU AND YOURS!

 

Does God communicate with us through our dreams?  St John Bosco was shown God's plan for his life in a dream when he was only a boy of 9.  

The vivid dream would remain etched in his mind for his entire life. Young John dreamed he was in a yard not far from his home in the hilly Italian countryside. It was full of poverty-stricken boys who were blaspheming and swearing. Wanting to stop them mouthing "these evil words", the young John jumped into their company and struck them with fists. 

He was interrupted from throwing punches by a Man in a white cloak whose face shone so much that young John could hardly look at him. The Man said, "You will have to win these friends of yours not by blows but by gentleness and love...I want you to teach them the ugliness of sin."  Young John admitted to the Man that he was perplexed, not knowing how he could ever influence innumerable numbers of young boys and he told the Man that he did not know who He was.

The Man said, "I will give you a teacher, under her guidance you could become wise, without her all "wisdom" is foolishness...I am her Son...Ask my Mother what my name is."  Suddenly Our Lady appeared, draped in a white mantle that seemed speckled with stars. 

Our Lady took his hand and said, "Look!'  Around them, in the place of the children were goats, dogs, cats and bears. Instructing young John, Our Lady explained, "This is your work...What you will see happening to these wild animals is what you must do for my children."

In the blink of an eye the wild beasts had turned into playful lambs that frolicked by Our Lady and young John. Our Lady assured young John that, "in good time you will understand everything."

The dream informed young John as to his vocation. He dedicated his life to rescuing and educating abandoned children and young offenders. Throughout his life, until his death on January 31st 1888, he would have dreams which were really masterclasses in divine instruction. 

Many of St John Bosco's dreams concerned the boys he was teaching and the state of their souls. He had various dreams about the boys and their time in the confession box. St John Bosco dreamed that when the boys knelt in the confessional they became under the influence of certain bad angels and began holding back sins while they made their confessions. Following these dreams, St John Bosco warned the kids in his care that if they were going to go to Confession, that they had better make thorough ones or not confess at all.  

His dreams also edified him to his own lack of fervour for God. Years ago on EWTN, Mother Angelica did a program on a dream where St John Bosco was escorted by St Dominic Savio to a supremely beautiful, heavenly place, which was not in fact Heaven. St Dominic showed St John Bosco hordes of boys in white whose souls had gone there because they had been his charges. 

Initially St John Bosco was delighted that his efforts had brought so many souls to the heavenly realms, but St Dominic Savio had something hard to say to him: "There would be many, many more still if only you had greater faith and confidence in God". 

Being of the belief that God can use dreams as a means of communicating with us - flies in the face of Freudian psychology - which teaches that dreams are products of our subconscious minds and never ever a means of instruction from God.  As Catholics we believe that dreams can be the result of our minds processing what we have experienced or, they may be of the ilk of dream experienced by St John Bosco.

The majority of us will never have dreams like St John Bosco, but today on his feast day, might it be a good idea to pray for edification during our dreams, and the sort of instruction that will help us lead better lives?

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Five years ago I wrote this post for London's Catholic Herald on the occasion of the feast of St John Bosco which falls on January 31st.